Last week we celebrated the two year anniversary of the 3DS by finding a picture of a cake based on the handheld. It's been a fascinating journey so far for the portable, enjoying a bumper launch weekend, before tanking to worrying levels, and then rising like a Phoenix — courtesy of excellent games and a price drop — to hit nearly 30 million unit sales worldwide at the close of 2012. It's the undisputed number one in Japan, and performing reasonably well in the West.

Naturally, Nintendo of America decided to celebrate with an infographic, producing the above timeline to chart the handheld's evolution. Trying to squeeze two years of a handheld's history into a small space isn't the easiest of tasks, so naturally there are some omissions to chew over. For example we have the Pearl Pink and Midnight Purple 3DS models, but no mention of Kid Icarus: Uprising, yet room was found for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

Still, it can be fun to debate these things, and it's a nice infographic to gaze at. It also reminds us of some interesting statistics, showing that over eight million units have sold in North America, while there have been a thoroughly reasonable 80 "Digital" games. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser. ThomasBW84